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Re: [CBQ] What could these crates be?

To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [CBQ] What could these crates be?
From: RWA325@aol.com
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:40:28 -0400 (EDT)
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Very interesting info, Pete!  Were banana  messengers considered "regular' 
employees, who were eligible to bid on  other jobs, etc.?
 
Bob Arthur
 
 
In a message dated 3/19/2014 1:52:16 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com writes:

 
 
 
Read some of the old Railroad Magazine  stories by E.S. 
Dellinger...Specifically  "Wheeling the Hotshots"...this  story and some others 
are based on 
the exploits of "Young Runners"...racing  Banana Extras" north at passenger 
train speed.  This would have been in  the late teens an early twenties...  


Bananas were moved in ice reefers from New Orleans to northern markets  ie 
Chicago, Minneapolis et cetra...shipments were cared for by Banana  
Messengers who accompanied the shipments and took care of opening and closing  
the 
vents and operating the heaters on the cars.
I encountered one of these messengers in the yard at Ravenna, NE one  night 
in 1956...He was creeping down a train with a dim "barn" lantern.
I asked the foreman..who that guy was..He said.."That was the banana  
messenger....They were recruited from such environs as West Madison St. in  
Chicago and other like environs in other cities.


BTW..just so ya know...Bananas were a commodity that actually created  heat 
as they ripened...That's why the cars had to have someone to regulate the  
temperature by opening and closing the vents and lighting and extinguishing  
the heaters.  If not properly handled the bananas would ripen too rapidly  
spurred on by their own self created heat and thus spoil before they reached 
 destination.


We handled banana claims in the Rock Island Claims Department during my  
regime...1964-72.


Pete


-----Original  Message-----
From: archie hayden <klinerarch@charter.net>
To: CBQ  <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, Mar 19, 2014 11:58 am
Subject:  Re: [CBQ] What could these crates be?


 
 
 
 
I believe Eric has solved the mystery of the strange crates found at  
various depots along the Burlington. To think our ancestors had  
bananas around the turn of the century. What wonders God hath 
wrought!  Thanks, Eric Archie












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